The Alabaster Enclave Settlement in Kohtalo | World Anvil

The Alabaster Enclave

The White City, last home of the Naga. A true marvel of engineering. Not a seam can be seen between the stones, whether by design or the passage of time the whole city is smooth as a riverstone. Couldnt tell you if they carved it out of the monolith or built it from quarried stone, but it is a sight to behold.
— Jasper Cameron, leader of The Bronze Ravens.
  The Alabaster Enclave sits gleaming atop a colossal stone monolith in the plains east of The Ruby Bridge. Most traders steer well clear of it due in large part to old superstition and rumors. The Naga people are as welcoming as those at Hell's Half-Acre, and much more numerous. Indeed for those willing to add an extra couple of weeks onto their journey it can be well worth it just for the experience alone.   Besides the shining white color, which can be seen from quite some distance away, the first thing that one will notice is lack of stairs or steps anywhere in the city. The Naga people, lacking legs, use ramps instead. Larger naga use gently sloping winding paths throughout the city, which ca ne a little confusing for outsiders, but even more startling is to see small naga climbing up and down near vertical paths with ease, occasionally emerging from what a legged person would (correctly) assume to be a roof or ceiling.  

The Jade Plaza

  Other than its strange architecture the Enclave is much like any other city. There are districts, merchants, holiday festivals and everything else that one would associate with civilization. Any visitor will likely be drawn all on their own to The Jade Plaza. Its the smell you see. It smells WONDERFUL. Daily there are impromptu cooking competitions as merchants compete for customers. Should an actual caravan pull in these reach an almost fever pitch. Slow roasted meats are the specialty, whether served on their own or in stews or curry. (A product, no doubt, or the Naga's lack of teeth besides their fangs)   Tempting as it may be to follow your nose to the next tasty delight, it is considered disrespectful to cross the center of the Plaza. Should you look down you will see the only non-green structure in the plaza, a large, bone-white plaque. Bone white because it is made from the bones of the Naga who were killed there during the Necromancer Wars. The cities history of that time is carved around the plaque, though there are some perhaps obvious gaps in the story, like what angered the necromances into attempting the genocide of the Naga. The plaque itself, with its hypnotically spiraling designs, is made from a single rib of each Naga that died that day, intricately carved with glyphs and scripts in the Naga language. The whole thing in sealed in a clear amber-like substance. It is not a crime to trod upon the plaque, but I have never seen a person do so more than once, for even approaching it to close makes me feel a sense of dread and impending doom not dissimilar to the sight of a black dragon.  

The Library

  But besides the food, and profitable trading opportunities, why would one visit the Alabaster Enclave. Why, the Library of course, or so it was in centuries past. thousands of years worth of accumulated arcane knowledge, including the amazing spellwork available on the lenses that translate what you are reading to a language that you understand. Texts on water and light magic unsurpassed anywhere in the world. Scrolls yards long on toxins and venoms both mundane and magical. Alchemical formulas lost to much of the rest of the world. Outside of the Deep Vaults of the Outh Dwarves, the Elven Archive, and The Unwritten Library there is no greater knowledge stor in the world.   It is all still there, it is just that outside of the first floor it is occupied. Or so the rumors say. The books and scrolls, indeed the shelves themselves on the first floor seem to move and shift when people aren't looking, which does give a still impressive variety to the library. It is just that what you are looking for may be located deeper. Much deeeper as the blueprints show the library extending down 20 floors below the entrance. Those that venture deeper into the library speak of things in the shadows or perhaps the shadows themselves, that will attack and harass people. Some return with the books they sought to find, others never come back.  

The Tower Beyond Sunset

  On the western edge of the Enclave is it most famous structure. A nearly clear crystal tower that stretches to touch the clouds, or so it must seem. What its original purpose was not even the Naga can tell you. In their oldest histories it was the tower that brought them to the plateau. The tower can be best seen late at night or early in the morning, where it appears as a pillar of fire, its crystal structure and dizzying height catching the rays of the sun hours before anything else in the area and reflecting down through the tower.   Rumors and legends say that there is a way into the tower, and should one be able to scale its interior untold riches or the favor of the gods awaits. All study of the accessible parts of the exterior would say this is a lie. No evidence of any interior structure has been observed. Doesn't mean it isn't true though. It was only recently that we discovered the Labyrinth inside the Ruby Bridge, so who is to say what wonders there are in the world?

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Author's Notes

The Deck of Worlds tree, for future reference and expansion.


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